Coast to Coasters

Hey!
Extra excited as usual to share my latest project with you guys, but first, a backstory! Well a month or so ago I saw a project on TGF's Blog about making coasters out of stone tiles and it got the gears turning in my head. I decided to give it a try myself so off to home depot I went to buy a couple of travertine tiles. I only wanted one or two just for fun but Home Depot only sells them by the pack. I wasn't too disapointed though because a pack of 9 only cost about $4.30ish after taxes. I figured I could make 2 sets of 4 with one extra to practice/ruin/drop (whichever came first ^.^). In the tutorial, Melissa O used 4x4 tumbled marble tiles and stamped with Brilliance ink. Brilliance is actually a water based ink so I decided to try something different since I was planning to use these as coasters. After wiping down my tiles with a damp towel to remove excess dust and allowing it to dry, I then stamped with my Versamark pad and sprinkled Ranger's Ultra Fine black embossing powder and dumped off the, gently tapping it on the table to remove any extra powder clinging to random spots on the tile. Step 3 was interesting because I've never tried to heat emboss anything but paper so who knew how that would turn out LOL! Quick science lesson, natural stone actually holds and distributes heat really well and evenly...eventually...which is why baking stones work so awesome for cookies and especially pizza! AKA, heat embossing travertine, SUCCESS! I was incredibly proud of myself for this awesome discovery because as you know, copics and embossing powder work just fine together...unless its on travertine apparently o_O. Unfortunately my nibs are stained now but as long as they still come out the color they're supposed to I'm not too sad but fair warning, be careful not to color over the EP if you can avoid it, kinda like if you were using stazon. They came out great!

Up Up Bean (TL) C.C. Harlow (TR)

Flutter Anya (BL) Skyward Anya (BR)

Frappy Anya (TL) Birthday Anya I (TR)

Birthday Anya II (BL) Lolli Anya (BR)

I colored them all with my copic markers. For Skyward Anya I created a kind of halo/aura with my copics while I tried more of an inked border also using copics which was a little harder and didn't turn out as well, not so sure copics were meant to be blendable on tile. For the other two, I inked around the edges with stampin up Real Red and Tim Holtz Spun Sugar and it turned out much better. After coloring I added stickles here and there and glossy accents to the lenses of the girls' goggles and gave them a couple of coats of the same spray acrylic sealer I used for the Magnets I made a while back, to make them water proof! Hope you guys give it a try, for the bottom set I was going for a sweet treats pastel kind of look and I plan to enter these in the Use Pastel Colors Farm Fresh Friday challenge over at The Greeting Farm. Honestly mine were supposed to be gifts but they're so cute I'm not sure I can part with them now! I even went out and bought another pack of tiles to make a few more, I'm addicted! See you guys around!

-Krys

Let it Snow

Hey! Sorry I haven't been aroud for a few days, my hubby left for basic a little over a week ago and my heart just hasn't been in making cards, I've been so sad. I miss him so much but at the same time I'm super proud of him for his decision! I can't wait till he gets back home I could use a good cuddle in this weather here... Snow, in Texas, lol it's like a cosmic joke. I JUST posted about how it never snows here and then we get snow! Ah well such is life -_- . As a joke to myself I created another snow themed card to commemorate this day, it will also be used for the FFF challenge over at Splendid Stamping, Snow

Loli Anya

For this card I used Loli Anya colored with copics. I attempted to alter her little outfit to look more wintery by giving her long sleeves white stockings and cute little mittens, adorable right? The Swirls embossed paper with glitter reminded me of the swirling wind blowing snow around. A rub on sentiment, a few pearls and a snowflake in the corner finished off the card. I can't wait for cyber Monday you guys, see you then!

-Krys

A 'SMASH' ing Alteration

Hi bloggers, its been a while, I'm still trying to turn those stubborn lemons into something worth the wait but its slow going. Meanwhile, I'd been working on a project that has taken me quite a while to complete. I'm proud to say, it has been completed and I couldn't be more excited to show and tell, but first, a back story!

A few months ago I started seeing these K & Co 'Smash Journals' everywhere (along with DIY tutorials on how to make your own). I loved the tutorials because when you can DIY and save money its always a great feeling on you and your pockets! And lets face it, at roughly 14.99 a book its a bit steep so why not do it yourself? why? I'll tell you why, Michaels sent me a '50% off one regular priced item' coupon in the mail and it was burning a hole in my pocket :). Anywho, I selected and purchased the one with the pink binding, Pretty Style Folio, got home, and waited for some great creative revelation to hit me... Weeks later I was still waiting. I tried journaling in it, doodling, treating it like a scrapbook, but nothing. No great work of art or much of anything else came about and I started to give up hope until one day I found the problem. It was boring, plain, and downright ordinary looking! How could I be inspired when the book itself was so uninspiring. I immediately began to design the perfect cover and to do this I had to take it in stages. A lot of hard work and many hours went into this project but it was definitely a labor of love and I'd do it again!

(BEFORE)

 

 

(AFTER)

Lolli Anya, Cheeky Geeky, Queen Bean, Alice Bean, C.C. Madden, Cheshire Bean, C.C. Friday Night, C.C. Lula

Sentiments: Anya Strolls, Anya Lifts, O&A My Favorite Things

Cheeky Geeky, Queen Bean, Alice Bean, C.C. Madden

Cheeky Geeky, Queen Bean, Alice Bean, C.C. Madden, Cheshire Bean

Lolli Anya, C.C. Lula, Cheeky Geeky, Cheshire Bean

Sentiments: Anya Strolls, Anya Lifts

Lolli Anya, Cheeky Geeky, C.C. Lula, C.C. Friday Night

C.C. Madden & Lolli Anya

 

As you can see, I had lots of fun layering and distressing and stamping and coloring to bring this book cover to life! I used quite a few of the TGF stamps in my arsenal, and actually have about 5 or 6 more colored up that were unfortunately too big to make the cover but will still be used for future projects, promise! I used Tim Holtz Walnut Stain to distress the edges of several sheets of paper from DCWV as well as a sheet of translucent vellum with script. I added a few pages from an old book also distressed with Walnut Stain as well as Antique Linen. Each of the girlies were stamped around a sheet of kraft colored cardstock and each took about an hour to color. I love the way prismas look on kraft cardstock so I tried to experiment with skin tones as well as outfit colors and was very happy with the outcome. Dark skin is not the easiest to render on kraft, found that out the hard way. But the key is layering, much like working with copics. Once I figured that out it was (semi) smooth sailing from there! Everything was held on and sealed with my homemade mod podge, which I found a 'recipe' for on Pintrest. Honestly, can you really call it a recipe if there's only 2 ingredients? oh well, the point is, whatever you call it, it works GREAT! I'll never buy the real thing again! To finish off the book I created several charms to fit my personality, connected a few jump rings and made a hanging charm for the binding of my book (gotta love that shrinky dink!). I plan to enter my altered SMASH folio in the following challenges:

 

The Greeting Farm Retro Fresh Challenge- Layers!

The Greeting Farm FFF Challenge- School's Out

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes

 

Until next time,

-Krys



When Life Hands You Lemons...

Hey out there in blogland! I realized the other day how hard it is to blog when you're stressed out or upset about something so my post have been limited to non existent. Life has been handing me lemon after extra sour lemon and they are beginning to rub off on me and make me a tad sour... ok a lot sour. I haven't quite figured out how to make lemonade with those particular lemons, they're a bit hard to digest but rest assure there are many ways to juice a lemon (so they say, personally I only know of one!) and I fortunately know quite a few recipes that require lemon juice so no worries! This week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp the challenge is summer fruit, how apt since one of the first fruit I think of when I think of summer would be lemons! And what might you say is the unanimous drink of summer? LEMONADE! That's right folks who doesn't love an ice cold glass of sweet and tart lemonade on a hot Texas day? I can't think of anyone, can you? I certainly do and this card makes me thirsty just looking at it!

TGF Lolli Anya

 

I used Lolli Anya for this card colored with copics and gave her a cool glass of lemonade by wiping away her lolli and cutting out a glass of lemonade with my cricut to replace it. The lemons were all hand drawn and stickled beyond all reason including the giant lemon slice in the background. The dp is a mix of something I created and a scrap of the Echo Park Paradise beach 6x6 stack and the ribbon is from my stash. The sentiment as well as the cute lil glass were cut from the Simply Charmed Cricut Cartridge. I plan to enter this card into the following challenges:

 

Simon Says Stamp Challenge Summer Fruit

The Greeting Farm FFF - Summer Time

The Greeting Farm Retro Fresh Challenge- Layers

The ABC Challenge P for Pretty in Pink

The Greeting Farm GVT Sketch